Mark Brooks

The agreements announced Wednesday with the Federal Reserve were similar to deals struck earlier this month with 10 other major banks and mortgage lenders.

Three leading European leaders, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Premier Mario Monti, will deliver keynote addresses on how to push forward the global economic revival, according to officials from the World Economic Forum.

Geithner says in a letter to congressional leaders that the move will free up $156 billion in borrowing authority while Congress debates increasing the $16.4 trillion debt limit.

The news sent platinum prices shooting higher. Platinum for April delivery rose $31.70 to $1,689.90.

The license is for a field in western Lithuania, an area near the Baltic Sea where several small firms extract a tiny amount of crude oil.

The workers voted against representation by the Communications Workers of America by 3,052 to 2,902, or 51 percent to 49 percent.

Called "graph search," the new service lets users search their social connections for information about people, interests, photos, and places.

Facebook is holding the event at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. EST) at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.

The dispute in Washington about the U.S. debt ceiling worries oil investors, who fear a reprise of the standoff in the summer of 2011.

Congress has to increase the country's debt limit, which effectively rules how much debt the U.S. can have, by the end of February or face a potential default, Fitch says.

Douglas Renwick, senior director of Fitch Rating's European sovereign credit analysis, said the 17 EU countries that use the euro have shown their capacity to muddle through to some sort of resolution of their 3-year debt crisis and that a breakup of the bloc is now "very unlikely."

Darin Newsom, a senior commodities analyst at DTN, an Omaha, Neb.-based market information company, said commercial buyers were coming back into the market over the last two days after the Department of Agriculture released its final crop report of 2012 on Friday.

The Japanese company sold 9.7 million cars and trucks worldwide in 2012, although it's still counting. GM sold 9.29 million.

Stock fund withdrawals have exceeded deposits for 10 straight months. The total withdrawn last year was the most since 2008, when the financial crisis hit.

Lawmakers voted 166-123 to in favor of the measures provisionally implemented by Cabinet decision late last year so that Greece could secure a massive new round of emergency loans.

The government could run out of cash to pay all its bills in full as early as Feb. 15, according to one authoritative estimate.

ECB President Mario Draghi also said late last week that he expects the economy in the 17-country bloc that uses the euro to recover slightly in late 2013.

Benchmark oil fell 11 cents to $93.45 per barrel in midday trading in New York. Last week oil rose just 50 cents.

"We are not a deadbeat nation," he declared.

Coca-Cola said its ads aren't a reaction to negative public sentiment. Instead, the idea was to raise awareness about what the company has done and the work it plans to do in coming months regarding obesity, said Stuart Kronauge, general manager of sparkling beverages for Coca-Cola North America.